Friday, May 9, 2014

On the Beauty of Blue Butterfly Wreaths...

A couple of weeks ago, my beautiful son's Special Education teacher asked me if I would come into the classroom to create a project with the kids for Mother's Day. I jump at any chance to spend any time with my boy at school. As they get older, the opportunity to visit them at school slips away. It breaks my heart because I feel parents are such an important partner in education-especially for the children in special classrooms. So Glitta Mama was giddy to be going to school-io and to be crafting with these kids was icing on the Cinnabon.

His teacher gave me full purple power to design any project I wanted. This was to be a gift for each child's mother and I wanted it to be extraordinary and so special. I decided on having them design a drawing and I would put them onto a Twinkle Tote and whatever craft I decided would go inside the tote. I thought about it a bit and decided that I wanted the kids to make a wreath for their Mamas-a yarn wrapped one. I questioned a few Wreathistas to see what they thought and they all came back with "Girl, you so crazy. A yarn wreath takes a minute and you don't have three weeks to keep going back and forth into the classroom to wrap those wreaths." So the traditional yarn wreath was out. I wandered the aisles of the craft stores and Wally with desperation for inspiration to strike..and then, EUREKA! I found some very chunky yarn, yarn used for making chunky scarves, on clearance at Wally. It was about twice as thick as a shoelace. I thought it could work. I entertained the thought of having all the kids use different colors of yarn, but decided one color would be better so that they would not fight over colors and then the stuff I got to decorate with would be much easier if I had a set color palette. I called + harassed my sister a hundred times to decide which color I should get. She humored me with my wicked indecisiveness.

I finally decided on a green/turq/blue combo with silver threads in it. This was also an excellent choice because if the kids were not perfect with them and the green wreath form poked through underneath, it would not be obvious.
The chunkier yarn was awesome because it made wrapping so much quicker and easier. Many of these kids have OT issues and differing abilities, so the chunky, multi-colored yarn was excellent for many reasons.
I then asked around my posse if they thought a butterfly theme or turtle theme was cuter for Mother's Day and all of them said "butterfly." So...I took that sage advice and went butterfly hunting. I kept it all within the greens and blues to coord with the yarn. I also purchased some small glittered flowers with gems in them and glittered letters. I worked up a samp and was happy with it and simply could not wait for today! Packed all my craft junk up in my purple suitcase and was ready to roll.

I arrived at the classroom bright and early and set it all out and we got busy. I will not go into a ton of detail about those hours, but I will tell you that they were beautiful. Listening to the kids chat about their Moms while making their wreaths will remain in my heart forever.

I found the easiest way to wrap the yarn was to put the wreath in between your legs and just pass it from hand to hand. The kids did really well with this. I hot glued the ends and if there were any loose yarn spots, I just hot glued them down. Then the kids got busy decorating with the butterflies, initials and flowers. They were so cute-some of them wanted their Mom's first initial, a few wanted first and last and one sweet boy did first, middle, last initial:)

And when they were done, I looked around the room and saw beauty + butterflies everywhere. The wreaths were unbelievably gorgeous. Made with so much love and happiness. I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

I dragged the kids out in the hallway and snapped a few pics. I later came back and put each wreath into the custom bag they had designed for their Mom. I stuffed them with tissue paper and tied them with a bow and gave them strict instructions to carry them sweetly + softly on the bus home.

My sister joked that all the time, money and effort I put in, I should have just ditched the project and just went out and bought each Mom a Pandora bracelet. LOL

But...this was something different...this was something more than a craft project. These kids are simply extraordinary and it take s special kind of woman to be the Mom of a kid with different needs. They deserve to have some sparkle and something so meaningful on Mother's Day. I will think of all of them on Sunday morning and I hope they are moved by the masterpieces their sweet children have made with so much love for them.

I'm including pics of the supplies. If any one wants more details on how to make-just holla.

1 comment
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LOVE the picture of all the kids with their wreaths. They look so happy and they're mom's will love the wreath made by their kids. Of course you could have bought each mom a Pandora bracelet but it wouldn't mean as much to them as something made by their kids.